Technology Endowments Research Articles

The Potential of Social Enterprises as Milestones for a Place-Based Inclusive Innovation Strategy

Several classes of inequalities have emerged as a consequence of the territorial polarization generated by the knowledge-based economy. Place-based policies implemented so far have demonstrated scarce effects in leveraging the underlying potential of left-behind places. In this paper, we explore whether social enterprises can be the actors of a rejuvenated innovation policy able to convey the value of knowledge and innovation to society. Despite their weak technological endowments, social enterprises, through their territorial distributive patterns and organizational characteristics, represent an installed entrepreneurial base that can be targeted by a new generation of inclusive innovation policies.

Economic Growth Effects on B&R Sci-Tech Cooperation

The “Belt and Road” is a path of innovation, and sci-tech cooperation is the forerunner and support of B&R construction. However, what are the main patterns of cooperation? What are the mechanism and effect acting on the economic growth of countries along B&R? How to improve the quality and effect of cooperation? All these questions are worth to discuss in order to build B&R sci-tech cooperation network and B&R Community of Innovation. Although existing researches have made extensive analysis and research, there are still two shortcomings. First, most of them focus on the patterns of B&R sci-tech cooperation, but pay little attention to the mechanism and effect. Second, there is little empirical evidence on sci-tech cooperation promoting economic growth in countries along B&R.This paper attempts to make a comprehensive analysis on the above questions. And it finds that the sci-tech cooperation between countries along B&R and China is at its initial stage, mostly carried out by China’s neighbor such as Southeast Asian and South Asian countries, and is narrowed in cooperation scope. All kinds of cooperation can be classified as R&D cooperation and technology transfer, which promote the economic growth of countries along B&R by affecting R&D ability and knowledge stock respectively, and have different effects on countries with different technological endowment. The economic growth effects of R&D cooperation and technology transfer are mutually reinforcing. Therefore, carrying out the two types of cooperation simultaneously can promote the innovation and growth effects greatly. If countries along B&R are divided into innovation laggards and innovation pursuers, the effect of R&D cooperation is obviously different between the two groups, which is related to the technical level and difficulty of cooperation. It is also related to the direct productivity effect of technology transfer. Therefore, we can get the inspiration that B&R sci-tech cooperation should adopt different strategies in different countries according to the actual conditions, stick to the parallel development of R&D cooperation and technology transfer, and emphasize the technological endowment and quality of R&D cooperation.This paper adds to the existing literature in the following two ways: First, in terms of cooperation mechanism, it divides the existing patterns of B&R sci-tech cooperation into two categories: R&D cooperation in order to enhance the R&D capabilities of related countries, and technology transfer in order to increase their knowledge stock. Second, in terms of R&D conditions, this paper divides the related countries into two groups: backward countries and catch-up countries, investigates and compares B&R sci-tech cooperation’s effects on the economic growth in different group countries, and gives suggestion on how to improve sci-tech cooperation accordingly.

Ecosistema Universitario de Ciencia, Tecnología, Innovación y Emprendimiento

Society demands the colleges, besides the education, to contribute to the innovation system for the social-economic development. Through the lens of the Entrepreneurial Architecture –which includes constructs, structure, systems, leadership, strategies and culture– a qualitative research is presented herein. It was conducted based on a single case at a private college with its technology endowment. The results indicate that this college is being adapted to a new reality and is carrying out actions intended to integrate the college ecosystem of science and technology in order to foster both innovation and entrepreneurship.

Aportes para la inclusión de la dimensión medioambiental en los sistemas de información

El propósito del trabajo es determinar la huella de carbono -HC- en una institución de educación superior de gestión pública argentina analizando los requerimientos informativos para su cálculo a fin de establecer sus limitaciones y realizar aportes al diseño de políticas institucionales. Si bien las universidades informan su quehacer en materia ambiental, desarrollan programas de conducta responsable y adhieren a redes y estándares internacionales para promover el compromiso con la sociedad y el entorno, se encuentra ausente la cuantificación de las emisiones contaminantes que permitan establecer planes para su reducción. Se abordó una investigación cuantitativa, de tipo descriptiva, para determinar la HC en la Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Sociales de la Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata del año 2018 desde dos propuestas: el Método de las Cuentas Contables Comparadas o MC3 (Doménech, 2004) y una metodología específica para universidades (Álvarez y Heras, 2008). Para el cálculo de cada tipo de emisión se accedió a estados contables, facturas, notas e informes de los sistemas de Compras, Suministros y Registraciones.Los resultados muestran una mayor proporción de emisiones directas por la combustión de gas natural frente a una menor contribución de las indirectas por movilidad de la comunidad académica con un total de 150,76 kgCO2eq. per cápita para el año de estudio.El análisis revela las dificultades para el cálculo de la HC centradas en la falta de institucionalización de esta métrica. La adopción de un enfoque proactivo en el desarrollo de planes de mejora que permitan la reducción y/o compensación de las emisiones implicará no solo la adopción de nuevas tecnologías, más eficientes, que reemplacen las existentes de mayor consumo energético, sino, además, la disposición de sistemas que brinden información tanto de la dotación tecnológica y su grado de obsolescencia como sobre el impacto ambiental de su empleo.

Intangible capital and business productivity

The importance of intangible capital as a driver of productivity growth is recognised at both macroeconomic and microeconomic levels. However, in general, there is a lack of strong empirical evidence in the relevant literature on the connection between micro and macro approaches. This study integrates both perspectives to analyse how internal and external intangible capital influence the productivity of companies and, therefore, economic growth. A model is estimated in which the total factor productivity of companies is explained through their internal and external intangible capital. To this end, regional characteristics are considered in terms of technological endowment, human capital, and entrepreneurial capital. In addition, other agglomeration economies such as regional specialisation and regional productive diversity are also considered. In the empirical application, a panel of companies from the seventeen Spanish regions over the period 2006–2015 is used. The findings suggest that there is a positive effect of intangible capital on companies’ productivity and evidence of a spillover effect as a result of local intensities of intangibles.

A frame work for enhancing the use of indigenous knowledge system in technology development and utilization in developing economy

The productivity of agriculture in Nigeria over the years has relied extensively on the scientific innovations transferred to farmers from research institutes via extension services. Thus, technology development most often has been based on scientific research approach, with little or no collaboration with the indigenous people. This is based on the argument that indigenous people are ignorant, fatalistic and have nothing to offer as solutions to their problems. Incidentally, the imposition of scientific technology development framework, without the incorporation of the indigenous knowledge systems of local communities to a large extent, is believed to have contributed to failures in sustainable resource use and erosion of biodiversity. It is evident that indigenous societies have profound and detailed knowledge of the system, environment and species (plants and animals) which they are in contact with for generations and have developed strategies based on their own indigenous technical knowledge to solve their own problems. Therefore, full recognition of indigenous knowledge system of the “supposed users” of technology, their local traditions and technology endowment capabilities are central to the issue of sustainable and equitable technology development and utilization. This paper examines critically the technology development processes and suggest framework for enhancing the integration and use of indigenous knowledge system in technology development

Technology, Skills, and Globalization: Explaining International Differences in Routine and Nonroutine Work Using Survey Data

The shift away from manual and routine cognitive work, and towards non-routine cognitive work is a key feature of labor markets. There is no evidence, however, if the relative importance of various tasks differs between workers performing seemingly similar jobs in different countries. We develop worker-level, survey-based measures of task content of jobs – non-routine cognitive analytical and personal, routine cognitive and manual – that are consistent with widely-used occupation-specific measures based on O*NET database. We apply them to representative surveys conducted in 42 countries at different stages of development. We find substantial cross-country differences in the content of work within occupations. Routine task intensity (RTI) of jobs decreases significantly with GDP per capita for high-skill occupations but not for middle- and low skill occupations. We estimate the determinants of workers’ RTI as a function of technology (computer use), globalization (specialization in global value chains), structural change, and supply of skills, and decompose their role in accounting for the variation in RTI across countries. Computer use, better education, and higher literacy skills are related to lower RTI. Globalization (as measured by sector foreign value-added share) increases RTI in poorer countries but reduces RTI in richer countries. Differences in technology endowments and in skills’ supply matter most for cross-country differences in RTI, with globalization also important. Technology contributes the most to the differences in RTI among workers in high-skilled occupations and non-off-shorable occupations; globalization contributes the most to differences among workers in low-skilled occupations and offshorable occupations.

Enlightenment From the Experience of Poverty Reduction in the United States on the Islands Around India Ocean

Although the island countries around the Indian Ocean are in an obvious disadvantage in terms of industrial foundation, location conditions, capital and technological endowment, which greatly affects their economic development, they have the unique conditions to develop tourism and leisure industry from the perspective of the development of modern tourism and leisure industry. Based on the law of development of tourism and leisure industry and the background of rapid development of tourism and leisure industry. This study breaks away from the previous study on the disadvantage of general industry development in poverty-stricken areas, analyzes the advantages of developing tourism and leisure industry in poverty-stricken areas from the perspective of reverse thinking, and proposes poverty-stricken areas by drawing on the experience of the development of tourism and leisure industry in the United States. The specific implementation ideas and Countermeasures of district tourism poverty alleviation.

Regional economic disparities under the Solow model

In previous analyses of regional underdevelopment, aspects such as technological progress, the implications of growth theory, depreciation (especially capital), capital input, and technology input have been completely ignored. Desmet and Ortίn analyze rational underdevelopment using a Ricardian model. This study investigates the underdevelopment of regions in the light of the Solow model. Two regions with two sectors are considered for the model. The regions are characterized by different technological equipment. The first region is industrial. The second region has an agricultural character. When a new technology is available, both regions can benefit under certain conditions. Financial transfers between regions equalize incomes. The security of transfer payments is positive; the increase in income levels without an increase in productivity is negative. The regions have different depreciation rates, factors, and technology endowments. Enlargement to a growth theoretical model framework (Solow model) should demonstrate the effects of an economy’s investments, constant depreciation rates, population growth, and technological progress. This will make it possible to see how the new influencing factors influence the utility of the two regions.

Technology, Skills, and Globalization: Explaining International Differences in Routine and Nonroutine Work Using Survey Data

The shift away from manual and routine cognitive work, and towards non-routine cognitive work is a key feature of labor markets. There is no evidence, however, if the relative importance of various tasks differs between workers performing seemingly similar jobs in different countries. We develop worker-level, survey-based measures of task content of jobs – non-routine cognitive analytical and personal, routine cognitive and manual – that are consistent with widely-used occupation-specific measures based on O*NET database. We apply them to representative surveys conducted in 42 countries at different stages of development. We find substantial cross-country differences in the content of work within occupations. Routine task intensity (RTI) of jobs decreases significantly with GDP per capita for high-skill occupations but not for middle- and low-skill occupations. We estimate the determinants of workers’ RTI as a function of technology (computer use), globalization (specialization in global value chains), structural change, and supply of skills, and decompose their role in accounting for the variation in RTI across countries. Computer use, better education, and higher literacy skills are related to lower RTI. Globalization (as measured by sector foreign value-added share) increases RTI in poorer countries but reduces RTI in richer countries. Differences in technology endowments and in skills’ supply matter most for cross-country differences in RTI, with globalization also important. Technology contributes the most to the differences in RTI among workers in high-skilled occupations and non-off-shorable occupations; globalization contributes the most to differences among workers in low-skilled occupations and offshorable occupations.

Teachers become cocreators through participation in a teacher professional development (TPD) course in a resource constraint environment in South Africa

AbstractThe purpose of this paper is to provide insight into how teachers became cocreators by merging their existing knowledge of their subject, context, and new knowledge of using mobile tablets towards enhancing their teaching practices. This was achieved in a specific area in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa over a period of 3 years. The intentional situating of teachers as cocreators was implementation through a teacher professional development (TPD) course. The course consisted of 10 modules presented and completed over a 1‐year period. The TPD course was developed as an artefact using Design Science as a methodology with 3 iterations of implementation to refine it. The development of the course and its iterative implementation and refinement was grounded in the Living Lab open innovation approach with elements of gamification (coopetition), and various stakeholders were incorporated. Structuration theory was applied to indicate the “duality of structure” where structure and agency are related and dependent on each other and agents' actions produce, reproduce, and develop social structures. Technology endowments were integrated as part of the gamification and were dependent on predefined cocreation events. Each event was linked to a badge, and teachers had to provide practice‐based evidence of how new knowledge, proficiencies, and skills gained during the TPD sessions was adapted to their own subject and context knowledge and practically implemented in their classrooms. This presents an innovative way to introduce and use tablets in teaching and learning (structure) as teachers (agents) are acknowledged as domain and subject experts, and through exposure to technology and pedagogical strategies in using the technology (resources), they become cocreators of their own new enhanced classroom practice (social structures) and adopted the technology.

Catching-up in waste management. Evidence from the EU

This work tests for the presence of convergence in the main municipal solid waste disposal choices across EU countries over the years 1995–2010. We believe this is a relevant exercise, considering that in the last two decades the waste sector has experienced a profound transformation at the European level. In this context, β and σ tests of convergence can tell us more about the distribution of these different rival choices of waste disposal, by assessing on the one hand the presence of convergence and, on the other hand, the role played by environmental policy and green technological change in driving convergence. Our regression results suggest that conditional beta convergence is substantial for both recycling and incineration. For the case of recycling, this convergence is faster for countries characterised by a technological endowment in recycling technologies and stringent waste policies. Finally, heterogeneity across countries (sigma convergence) appears to decrease over time.

The fit between business model innovation and demand-side dynamics: catch-up of China’s latecomer mobile handset manufacturers

This paper aims to answer an important question: whether and how, in emerging markets, latecomer firms with limited technological endowments can catch up with industry incumbents that dominate the technological and market frontiers. Adopting the perspective of demand-side dynamics and analyzing the case of China’s mobile handset manufacturing industry between 1998 and 2008, the paper finds that in emerging markets, latecomer firms with limited technological innovation capability are able to achieve market share catch-up by using effectiveness-centered business model innovation. Specifically, business model innovations that provided the most effective (though not necessarily the most efficient or novel) solutions to cater to changing customer preferences were the winners in helping latecomers achieve catch-up.

Gains from Trade Liberalization between Heterogeneous Countries: Implications for the Korea–Japan FTA

We study the welfare implications of a bilateral free trade agreement (FTA). The model is based on the recent trade literature that considers search and matching frictions in the labor market. We extend the model by incorporating country-level heterogeneity in terms of production technology, population, and productivity endowment. By calibrating the model to Japanese and Korean data in order to assess the expected outcome of the potential Korea–Japan FTA, we find that when the two countries have the same population size, Japan receives greater benefits from the FTA because its relatively more capital-intensive production allows for quicker output adjustment upon trade liberalization. When we take into account that Japan's population is 2.5 times that of Korea, however, the results show that Korea enjoys a greater surplus because of the market size effect.

EU Structural Funds and Regional Income Convergence A Sobering Experience

The European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF) are the prime instrument of EU regional policy. European policy makers place considerable hope into their growth stimulating funding measures to overcome current economic stagnation. Consequently, there is a strong need for credible evidence regarding the programs' effectiveness. Based on an empirical identification strategy linked to modern growth theory, we find that the disbursement of EU structural funds is negatively correlated with regional growth. Incorporating spatial dynamics and decomposing this correlation into a direct and a spatially-indirect component, it is particularly the latter which determines this sobering finding. Regarding the economics behind these results, the obtained negative spatial effect may reflect the role played by policy-induced spatial competition among neighboring regions. It could also highlight the backwardness in technological endowment and economic structures of highly funded regions. In any case, EU structural funding does not seem to contribute effectively to foster income convergence across regions.

Different Threats, Different Militaries:Explaining Organizational Practices in Authoritarian Armies

Why do some states generate competent, professional military organizations, while others fail to do so even when they have the required economic, demographic, and technological endowments? Variation in states’ military organizational practices—their core policies related to promotion patterns, training regimens, command arrangements, and information management—holds the key. This article develops a typology of such practices and explains why and how they vary in response to the internal and external threats facing particular regimes. The article then subjects this argument to a carefully designed plausibility probe comparing the threat environments and military organizational practices of two states whose differences are both intuitively and theoretically puzzling: North and South Vietnam during the period 1954–1975. The initial evidence provides support for the theory and casts doubt on existing explanations of military organizational behavior focused on external threats, democracy, or the degree of political intervention in the military. The findings have important implications for foreign policy, as well as for future research on authoritarianism, civil-military relations, and military effectiveness.

Rational underdevelopment: regional economic disparities under the Heckscher-Ohlin Theorem

This paper analyzes how differences in regional development arise through technological variations and changes. Previous Ricardian-model-based considerations of this phenomenon, known as rational underdevelopment, have ignored migration, elasticities, multidimensional factors and inputs. This study thus re-examines rational underdevelopment in light of the Heckscher-Ohlin Theorem, considering two regions, with two sectors, in two periods. The regions have different factor and technology endowments. The first region has a technology sector, and the second is a technology laggard. Once a new technology that can potentially benefit both regions is introduced, the technology-endowed region offers financial transfers to the technologically lagging region. This equalizes regional incomes but also reduces the possibility that the laggard will adopt the new technology and decrease its developmental disadvantage. We also discuss the influence of mobile factors, which reduce regional inequality. The results show that rational underdevelopment extends beyond wage subsidies to mobile factors and capital. The analysis has implications for economic policies aimed at reducing inter-regional inequality.

The effects of reimbursement mechanisms on medical technology diffusion in the hospital sector in the Italian NHS

ObjectivesThe aim of this study was to investigate how the differences across the regional reimbursement mechanisms and in particular the use of the DRGs impact on the level in the high technology equipment diffusion. MethodsBased on hospital sector data at a regional level we build up indicators to measure the regional diffusion of high technological medical equipment in the period 1997–2007. These indicators are regressed on regional healthcare characteristics to investigate the relationship between the different reimbursement systems offered by Italian regions and the level of high technological medical equipment. ResultsOur results suggest that the per-case payment system is generally associated with a lower level of regional technology endowment per million of inhabitants, especially for the complex and expensive medical equipments. ConclusionsOur findings cast some doubts that an effective regulation of reimbursement mechanisms cannot limit the excessive diffusion of medical equipment that is a relevant driver of the increase in expenditure.

"Disruptions, Business Model Innovations and Industry Evolution in China’s Mobile Handset Industry"

Building upon Christensen’s disruptive innovation theory, this paper identifies business model innovations as one critical driving force behind the evolution of China’s mobile handset industry between 1998 and 2010. Adopting the perspectives of demand- side analysis, we find that the business models that caused disruptions to the industry were those focused on the most effective (though not necessarily the most efficient) approach to organizing resources and capabilities to cater to the rapidly changing preferences of customers. This type of business model innovation, based on effectiveness, enabled some entrepreneurial firms – those which, though they possessed fewer technological endowments, were faster in understanding customers’ preferences and more flexible in management – to identify and exploit disparities in the equilibrium of demand and supply of capabilities and resources across industry and geographic boundaries. The paper contributes to disruptive innovation theory by adding an effectiveness-centered approach in business model innovations to novelty-centered and efficiency-centered approaches in industry disruption.

Technological endowments in entrepreneurial partnerships

This paper discusses a novel argument to interpret the importance of thinking of collaborative partnerships in pre-competitive agreements. To do so, we adopt a dynamic iterative process to model technology diffusion between the partners of an agreement. We find that the success of an agreement of a given length hinges around identifying the suitable efficient combinations of the initial technological endowments of partners. As the time horizon of the agreement expands, the probability of identifying a suitable partner decreases, thus justifying the prevalence of short-horizon R&D agreements.